At the Back of the North Wind

Diamond wakes but cannot open his eyes when he hears whispering that sounds as if it is coming from the stained-glass overhead. He hears St. Paul, St. Matthew, and St. Luke debating whether Diamond is alive and what to do about him. St. Luke asserts that he is just sleeping, while another voice claims this is a trick of the North Wind, upsetting Diamond. The saints continue to talk about how disrespectful the North Wind is and how she has been banging the windows and making a mess all night. Diamond doubts that they are true apostles because of the way they are talking and is overcome with frustration. When he can finally open his eyes, he finds that he is in his loft in the stables.

Diamond gets dressed and goes outside, discovering that the large elm tree in the Coleman garden has fallen onto the summer house. He meets Mrs. Coleman’s brother, a clergyman, who says that the north wind was very aggressive the night before. He states that if they lived at her back in the “hyperborean regions,” the tree would not have fallen. The man goes back inside and Diamond resolves to ask the North Wind to take him to the country at her back.

The next morning, Diamond’s mother and father are worried about Diamond, who says he has a little bit of a headache. His mother explains that she received a letter from Diamond’s aunt, inviting him to visit her in the town of Sandwich. Diamond’s father agrees if she finds the money for the trip.

Diamond travels to Sandwich, a sleepy town, where he makes friends with the old woman who owns the local toy shop. One day while walking by, he notices that a toy windmill is moving on its own. When the North Wind speaks, he recognizes her. She describes carrying him home from the cathedral while he slept and talks about the men who survived the sinking ship. He asks her to take him to the country at the back of the north wind; she claims the journey is not easy, growing very quiet. Eventually, she promises to take him, and Diamond goes back to his aunt’s. That night he doesn’t feel well, and when the North Wind forces the lattice over his window open, he tells her that he is sick. She takes him in her arms and explains that she can't easily take him to the country at her back because she always blows southward. She then delivers Diamond to a ship headed northward. He hides in a hatch filled with spare sailing cloths, listening to the music the North Wind makes with the boat. After a while, the North Wind pulls him out of the hatch and delivers him to a second boat, which carries him to the North Pole.

The two of them hide in a cave within an iceberg, where the North Wind fades because of the effort of blowing against the South Wind. She manages to give Diamond directions before she disappears, and he continues to ride within the iceberg until he reaches a large mountain range. He reaches the opening to a valley and finds the North Wind frozen outside of the country at her back. She tells Diamond that she must wait until she is wanted and that to reach the country, he must walk through her. He does so, walking through terrible cold and whiteness that makes him faint. He falls, stumbling into the country hidden at the back of the north wind. 

The first-person narrator interjects to admit that he only knows about the country at the back of the north wind through what Diamond has told him; he then discusses the various reports that exist about the place. The narrator refers to an Italian man named Durante, who describes the country as a pleasant, warm land with beautiful nature and music. He also discusses Kilmeny, a peasant girl who describes the country in the form of a poem. The narrator speculates that the two people clearly visited the same country, but Kilmeny’s age prevented her from describing it fully.

Diamond describes a similar land, where the river sang music. He notes that there is no wind, and that he misses the presence of the North Wind. Diamond tells the narrator that no one spoke, and that the people there “looked as if they were waiting to be gladder someday” (65). 

Time passes. Diamond finds a tree in which, if he sits still, he can sense what is happening to the people he loves. He sees his mother crying and resolves to find the North Wind, who vanished after Diamond entered the country at her back. He spends many days sitting in the tree until, one day, the world seems to shrink beneath him into the shape of a map. He sees the North Wind sitting outside the valley and rushes to her, where she is still and frozen. He touches her cheek and she thaws. They embrace, and the North Wind tells Diamond that he has been gone for seven days, although it feels like years for him. The North Wind shrinks and lands on his shoulder, taking the shape of different animals—a spider, a weasel, a cat, a leopard, a jaguar, a tiger, and a human—as she guides him across the ice in the form of different animals. She picks him up and leaps into the air, flying south towards Sandwich. 

Diamond falls asleep in the North Wind’s arms and wakes to his mother’s face as she leans over his bed in Sandwich; she says that he has been very sick. The narrator explains some events that have happened that Diamond is not aware of. Miss Coleman was ill as the result of poor lungs, a man’s mistreatment of her, and the fact that she could not find something worth doing to occupy herself. The North Wind slipped into her room the night she left Diamond in the cathedral and made her more ill. The narrator also explains that the ship the North Wind sunk belonged to Mr. Coleman, who had been growing steadily more dishonest to conceal his growing poverty. The man who was Miss Coleman’s lover was also on this ship.

The narrator reveals that while Diamond was ill, or trapped in the north, Mr. Coleman’s creditors took everything they owned. Diamond’s father sent his wife to live with Diamond’s aunt while he looked for work.

Diamond’s mother takes Diamond to the beach after he has recovered and shares these details with him. 

Diamond and his mother look out across the sea. Diamond’s mother expresses some of her concerns, but Diamond is too young to understand and mistakes her meaning. This makes her smile, and they eat their dinner on the beach. After dinner, Diamond spots a book while dozing on the sand. His mother believes that they are nursery rhymes and that they are nonsense but reads one at Diamond’s insistence. He recognizes it as the sound of the river at the back of the north wind. His mother is frightened that his fever is returning, but the arrival of her brother-in-law interrupts them, and he helps her and Diamond back to the house.